Paint on the wall tv screens? Case chemist to design chemical
building blocks for such potential use

John Protasiewicz to use funding from a special
two-year, unsolicited grant for creativity from the National Science
Foundation

Imagine your television or computer screen coming from a container
as something to be applied to a flat surface like a wall—or, screens
so flexible that they can be rolled up and put in a pocket.

Those futuristic screens are closer to reality. John Protasiewicz,
Case Western Reserve University professor of chemistry, plans to use
funding from a special two-year, unsolicited grant for creativity from
the National Science Foundation to prepare new conjugated polymers that
feature novel chemical building blocks and inorganic elements. Such
special plastics have potential uses in understanding how these new
display devices work, and could lead to improvements in plastic display
technologies.

Protasiewicz is among only a few chemists in the country this year
to be singled out with a special creativity grant that acts as an extension
of prior NSF-funded projects that have shown promise. According to the
NSF, the creativity grants “offer the most creative investigators
an extended opportunity to attack adventurous, ‘high risk’ opportunities
in the same general research area.”

The Case chemist is the only one in his department known to have received
this special NSF funding of $300,000. He learned
of the award by e-mail while on sabbatical at Oxford
University. Since he had not previously heard of
creativity awards, he thought it was too good to
be true and might be a prank, he quickly called
the NSF program officer to find out what the “joke” was
about.

It turned out indeed to be a “Christmas in July” surprise
for Protasiewicz, who will build on his prior research in designing
new forms of polymers containing inorganic elements. These plastics
or polymers are very specialized and differ from the Styrofoam in disposable
cups or car bumpers.

These new materials have been engineered to flavor them with other
elements from the periodic table, especially phosphorous, an element
that shares many properties with carbon— the main backbone element
in most all plastics.

“We are looking at these emerging commercial materials as inspiration
for creating polymers that mimic these materials in form, but differ
mainly in the substitution of key carbon atoms by other elements,” said
Protasiewicz.

These new polymers presented challenges of stabilizing the reactive
sections of the monomers, but Protasiewicz added that “this is
where our ability to do molecular design or architecture comes in handy.”

Protasiewicz’s past research has led to discoveries on how to
build the shield for the polymers to protect against reactions with
the environment while designing what chemists call the “pi-ways” or
the double bonds in the chain of chemical molecules that create a pathway
or flow for electrons through these materials. These special pi-ways
are needed to produce the light-emitting effects in the new field of
organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) based on conjugated polymers.

OLED—because of their low cost to produce as well as the flexibility
of the materials—are expected to eventually replace the more rigid
liquid crystal displays (LCD) and cathode ray tubes now widely used
in electronics, said Protasiewicz.

“We can envision all kinds of fun things with future polymers
like a screen that can be painted on a wall,” said Protasiewicz.

He elaborated on the science of OLED. “These devices operate
by putting basically two electrodes on the material and then charging
it. Light is given off the material to make the display device.”

The new materials can produce photovoltaic properties, too, by shining
a light on them, which excites the electrons and causes them to move
around and emit light.

During the course of the search for the new materials, Protasiewicz
said, “We had to develop some new synthetic chemistry to learn
how to put together these units.”

Overall he said the goal has been to make new building blocks which
have all the “magic” properties to (a) stabilize introduction
of these exotic elements that we are putting into the polymers so that
(b) the specialized monomers in the plastics can be connected or “stitched” together
by appropriate synthetic chemistry to make new materials.”

“Our materials are exciting because they offer new insights
into how these other materials might work by reengineering the core
sequence,” said Protasiewicz.

To arrive at where the Case chemist and his research team is at, he
had to go through a learning period of discovery and find ways to overcome
difficulties with the first generation of these materials and their
limited utilities,” he said.

“Now the door is wide open for us, and we can have a lot of
fun in the chemistry playground with these polymers,” said Protasiewicz.

About Case Western Reserve University

Case is among the nation's leading research institutions. Founded in 1826
and shaped by the unique merger of the Case Institute of Technology and Western
Reserve University, Case is distinguished by its strengths in education, research,
service, and experiential learning. Located in Cleveland, Case offers nationally
recognized programs in the Arts and Sciences, Dental Medicine, Engineering,
Law, Management, Medicine, Nursing, and Social Work. http://www.case.edu.